From magical wormholes to cyber hacking to secret societies so out there that we had to Google some things, the last year has been a wonderful exploration of fictional worlds in literature. We had new releases from beloved authors like Salman Rushdie and solid new stories from writers we have grown to love over the years like Chuck Wendig. Wendig's Zeroes, Disabato's The Ghost Network, and Swyler's The Book of Speculation gave us stories in worlds that looked starkly familiar to everyday…

“Mary Pilon spent several years reporting on finance for the Wall Street Journal, and several more reporting on sports for The New York Times. In her first book, The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game, Pilon debunks the myth—long perpetuated by Parker Brothers—that Monopoly was invented by a man named Charles Darrow during the Great Depression. Really, three decades prior, a woman named Lizzie Magie had created The Landlord’s Game, an obvious…